A Promise to Uphold
by Urube
Summary: Ren, a young woman, has made a deal with a group of pirates and is now on the verge of death. Luffy arrives at the village which the young woman lives at with his own group of pirates and hears rumors as he goes out on an adventure. Determined to find this young woman, Luffy orders his crew to search for her.
1. Chapter 1: Ren Enters

The breeze blew gently across the spring-themed island, rustling the leaves on its wake and allowed the birds to fly almost effortlessly through the air. Said birds chirped, accompanied by the song of the crickets.

Other sounds mixed itself with the sounds of nature, resonating through the forest and created quite a disturbance in the otherwise peaceful island. The sounds came from a small village there were located at the northern part of the island, near the shore. Fishers brought in their catches for the daily market, the local black smith worked hard to finish his jobs properly and the bakery sent out such a lovely scent there mingled itself with the others. Mothers tried to keep their children in a short leash while most of the fathers were either out working or drinking with their friends. A few dogs walked around the streets and searched for food.

No chaos, no fighting and a few arguments between family members as it is fit. A very peaceful and calm place located somewhere in the wild and ferocious Grand Line.

At this very moment, a girl - although to be more specific, a young woman - was walking along the shore, balancing on some bars there seemed to have some kind of purpose. She is not aware of that purpose nor does she care. It was fun to walk along the line like that, just like a circus princess would. Only it would be a thin rope instead of bars and she would have been several meters over the ground. Not like it mattered.

She nearly falls off, lifting a leg up to try and find her balance again. She manages to do so and threw her long strands of black hair over her shoulder - her low ponytail thoughtit was a good idea to follow the gravity's rules and threw itself over her shoulder to the front which she hated. Why couldn't the hair just stay in place like it was supposed to? So problematic.

Ren is her name. She's nearing her twenties and most of the time, she lives in her own little world. A peaceful world with no pirates, no marines and, most important of all, no wars. But she knew that without darkness, there would be no light and without evil, there would be no good either. And if everyone was the same, everything would be boring. Still.

A necessary evil. How cruel.

She sighs deeply. Her amber eyes casts itself over the area surrounding her, looking as if she was seeing the place for the first time. Truth be told, she knew this place almost as well as her own pocket.

Not much happened around these borders, but that was what made it so peaceful. And that was both boring and reassuring for the young woman. How typical. She felt herself torn in whichever situation she found herself in; one, she wanted peace. Two, she wanted some excitement, as long as it wouldn't cause any trouble for anyone. Ren knew that was impossible though. There was never any 'adventures' without danger.

Why did the world have to be so cruel? Everything would have been easier if everyone could live peacefully with one another. But that too was impossible. And it would always be like that.

Ren sighs once more. She better distract her mind or she would go too far down the dark swirl she was slowly creating in her own mind.

Tightening her ponytail, she casually jumps down from the bars and then walks towards the edge of the shore. As the eyed the ocean before her, she stops up and squints her eyes at the horizon.

A ship that wasn't theirs? It surely has been a long time since they last had visitors from the outside. Ren smiled softly to herself, which were hidden behind a tall collar, turning around and ran all the way back to the village to bring out the good news.

**Somewhere at sea in Grand Line**

"Ah! I'm full!" Luffy exclaimed happily, patting his overly large belly as he was laying on the deck. Beside him was Usopp and Chopper, just as full as their captain although they haven't even eaten half as much as the rubber-man.

"Thanks to our shitty captain here, we're now out of food. We don't have anything left in the stocks." the blond cook told the rest of the crew, blowing out a cloud of smoke from his position at the door into the kitchen area.

"What!?" all three (previously) happy pirates exclaimed in disbelief, sitting up and eyed the cook from their current position.

"There's no meat?!"

"-candies?!"

"-food!?"

Sanji sighed loudly, already feeling a headache growing. How he got stuck with such a bunch of morons, he had no idea. Ah, but of course, Nami wasn't like them.

"You heard me." was all he told the other crew members, closing his eyes and leaned up against the wall while he decided to enjoy his cigarette in peace. Or what he hoped would be peace, even for just a little while.

"But Sanji!" Luffy started, putting up his best pouty face with puppy dog eyes and everything. "What are we supposed to eat then? We don't have anything to catch fish with!"

Sanji groaned deeply. Seemed like his peaceful moment was shorter than he expected. Not that he should have expected much in the first place. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you ate the whole thing!"

"It's your fault!" Usopp and Chopper exclaimed at the same time with identical angry expressions on their faces while hitting the captain on his head, even though they knew it wouldn't do any harm to him.

"Now we gotta starve! Ah, who knows how long we'll be out here at sea..." Usopp complained, growing tired just by the thought of having to starve for God knows how long.

"Luffy! You shouldn't eat all of the food like that!" Chopper complained next, his eyes brimming with tears next as he too thought about the starvation there were doomed to come.

"But I was hungry." Luffy tried to explain, looking as innocent as ever. "Ah." With his legs crossed and his hands on the knees, he bowed deeply for the air in front of him although it was directed towards his nakamas. "Sorry."

"Sorry isn't gonna bring us food!" Chopper and Usopp scolded Luffy at the same time, hitting him atop his head once more while narrowing their eyes at the captain.

"I said I was sorry!"

"It's still not gonna bring us food!"

"Oi! I see land!" Zoro's voice suddenly cut through the air, catching everyone's attention immediately. All eyes were on him and they saw that the swordsman was pointing diagonally to the right, if you had to measure with the ship. And true enough, there was an island nearby, but there was still a great distance to travel.

"Haha! We're saved!" Usopp said with happy tears streaming down his cheeks. All three males located on the deck got up on their feet and trudged to the edge to take a peek on the on-coming island.

"That's good." Chopper said softly, a relieved smile appearing on his lips as he gazed at the island along with the others.

"Yay! We can have meat! Shishishishi." Luffy laughed, his overly large belly shrinking in and made him jump slightly from the sudden action of his body.

"Honestly." a feminine voice muttered to herself, a hand reaching up to rub at her forehead. "They've just eaten and yet they were so worried of not being able to get anything to eat." Nami shook her head gently. It was still a mystery to her how she had ended up going along with these guys. They were so silly and energetic (some of them pretty idiotic - scratch that, all of them were).

Soon enough, they reached the shore and laid ashore somewhere a bit further away from the harbor. They didn't know if there were any marines on this island, so they wanted to be safe and decided to duck at some other place.

And as soon as the Going Merry stilled, a flash of red, yellow and blue dashed through the air and the Straw Hats were able to hear the excited shouts of their captain a moment later.

Zoro and Usopp stayed back on the ship while the rest of the crew went out to refill the stocks - Luffy being the only one to go out on an adventure, as he had stated earlier.

"Shishishi! I wonder what kind of adventure we'll be going on today." Luffy said to himself with a laugh, smiling widely as he glanced up at the tall trees, a hand on the straw hat to keep it in place.

He could hear the birds chirp and the sounds of cricket, but something felt off. Luffy weren't sure how he was able to tell that, but the animals were warning him - sounding somewhat panicking in their beautiful songs.

Something was gonna happen.

And of course, being the thrill-seeker he is, Luffy merely grinned wider and decided to speed up. His sandals clapped as he ran, his head ducking whenever he came past a branch there were too low for him to just walk past.

Sooner than he had expected, he found himself in a small village - so this place was inhabited. Luffy figured the others would have found this place by now or very soon, so perhaps he'll see them very soon. And maybe ask Chopper to go out on an adventure with him. Walking around by yourself was kind of lonely even though he knew the others weren't that far away.

The rubber-man stops up, glancing around in his current surroundings. It's a small village, he can tell right away; everyone seemed to know everyone and they were all chattering amongst each other in small groups, talking about shopping, their latest catch or whatever seemed to be on their mind. Pretty peaceful, Luffy noted with a smile and listened more closely to two elder women there stood not that far from him.

"...doesn't get too terribly hurt because of us all. To think someone would sacrifice themselves like that. And she seemed so young too."

Luffy frowned; that didn't sound particular peaceful. Rather cruel in his ears. He stepped closer, wanting to catch the entire conversation.

"Yes, but you know her. She wants to do everything for this village. For what reason, I'm not sure."

"She has grown up here, surely you know that."

"Ah, that's correct. But still." The elder woman shook her head gently and sighed deeply. Whoever it was they talked about, she seemed to be close to these two, at least.

"Who are you talking about?" Luffy interrupted, popping up between the two elder women. They yelped, not having seen him approach. "Sorry." the rubber-man muttered to them, waiting patiently for his answer.

"Ah..." The woman that seemed to be struggling with her words had short greyish hair with a dark red hat adorning her head. She wore a dress of matching color and seemed pretty ordinary with her numerous wrinkles and tiny purse clutched in her in her hands. The other looked about the same (to Luffy's eyes, at least) with natural curls and a white dress with flower prints all over it. On the other hand, she had no purse or hat as accessories. Despite their obvious old age, they stood straight and tall as if they were no older than twenty.

"It's Ren. A girl from this village. Although she's becoming a woman now. How fast these youngerst grow, don't you think so, Emi?" the woman with flower print spoke, addressing the last part to the other woman.

"Ah, yes, yes. Fast indeed."

"What happened to her? What you said earlier sounded like something terrible had happened." Luffy interrupted once more, not paying any attention to their small talk.

"You don't know? Ah, I suppose you're not from this village then. Last week, we, uh..."

"We were attacked by a group of pirates. This is a small island, so it's rare for travellers to even come by here. But two weeks ago, actually, a group of pirates arrived and declared this island for theirs." the woman with flower prints explained softly with a pained look in her eyes. The other woman had a similar look to her, glancing towards somewhere - it appeared to be somewhere outside the village.

"What happened then? What does the girl have to do with any of this? Is she a pirate?" Luffy said hurriedly, his patience running thin. An energitic boy like him could only be still for this long.

"No, no, no. Ren isn't a pirate even though she doesn't have anything against them. Now, if you just waited for your answers, young man, you would get them." the red-cladded woman said to him, nodding continueusly.

"But I want to know what happened!" he protested loudly, frowning deeply and put a hand atop his straw hat. He attempted to be intimidating like Zoro is sometimes, but it didn't seem to work as well as he had hoped.

"Listen here, young man." the woman with flower prints spoke up next, catching Luffy's attention. "Ren made a deal with the pirates; she told them something about that she would give herself up if they left this village unharmed. It's been two weeks since then and the village has yet to be harmed. But who knows if those pirates will keep their word? Pirates are liars and do whatever they please regardless of the consequences."

"Ah, indeed, indeed." the red-cladded woman agreed with the other, nodding a few times.

"Where is she now?"

"Huh?" both woman said at the same time, giving the rubber-man confused looks.

"That girl you talked about. Where is she now?" Luffy repeated, lowering his arm and letting his features soften as he waited for an answer. He wanted to talk to this young woman himself and figure out what really happened. And why she did what she did.

"Ah, I believe she's, uh..." The red-cladded woman glanced at the other, looking for an answer.

"I'm not sure, but I believe it's at the southern parts of this island, in the forest somewhere. They must have found a cave or something else to take shelter in. Or maybe they're on their ship? No one really knows even though people have searched for them."

"Hm." Luffy thought hard (or as hard as he could), looking fairly concentrated for a long while. For a moment, it seemed like his face would turn red before he brightened up, seemingly to have come into terms with himself.

"Alright! Thanks, old ladies!" he said to the two elder women, waving with a wide smile before taking off in a run. "Now I have to find the others and then we'll find that girl."

Luffy kept running around the village until he found his nakamas - they had a few bags on them and seemed to be eyeing another store. The rubber-man easily caught up to them, stopping up in front of them and surprised a few of them.

"Luffy?" Nami questioned out loud, her delicate features wrinkling up slightly as she frowned. "I thought you went out on an adventure." The rest of the group agreed with quiet murmur and silent words.

"I did! But I came across these two old ladies and they talked about this girl that had been caught by other pirates -"

"WHAT?! I must save her immediatelly!" Sanji exclaimed, giving Chopper the bags he was holding for Nami and then ran off faster than lightning - or so it seemed like. The others merely watched him leave in quiet awe, blinking curiously at the blond cook. They shouldn't be that surprised though; Sanji would do anything for a lady.

"Luffy, why are you telling us this?" Nami said to the captain, catching everyone's attention and speaking the thought of all present.

"I want to go talk to her and find out what really happened here. Those old ladies said she sacrificed herself to protect this village. They didn't say why she did it though, so we're gonna find out."

"Do you know where she is?" Chopper said next, looking up at the captain with large, brown eyes.

"Nope!" Luffy exclaimed with a smile, earning a tired sigh from his crew. Nami was shaking her head while she tried to figure out where they could look first.

"Do you even know how she looks like?" she questioned as the thought suddenly hit her, setting her hands on the hips.

"Nope! But her name is Ren." Luffy said as his smile brightened a bit more. Nami groaned softly, having expected that for once her captain had used his head properly, but clearly she had expected too much. Still, they had a name to go by and that was always something. If only a little.

"Alright." Nami said with a sigh. "Come on, Chopper, let's go looking for her."

"Oh. Okay. But what about the things we've bought? Shouldn't we go back to the ship with them first?" Chopper asked curiously, glancing over his shoulder to look at the bags slunged over his back.

Nami hummed thoughtfully. "Right, that would be best. After we've brought the bags to the ship, we can go looking for this 'Ren', whoever she might be..."

**At the other end of the island**

On a ship ducked at the shore a group of pirates have made themselves at home. Chattering could be heard as the majority of them sat around their respective tables, clanking their glasses and laughing at jokes while they ate the delicious food the chef had made for them all. One other person located some place else in the building was sitting by himself at a desk, taking a nap. Not far from him was a young woman chained to the wall.

Her breathing was slightly abnormal and her hair had become messy, as if she hadn't been showering for days. There were evidence of loss of weight indicated by the draw lines of bones all over her body, safe for the places there were hidden beneath the clothes, of course.

Ren was on the verge of death, she could feel that very clearly. A day or two more and she would surely be dead. And she couldn't imagine a worse way of dying than the one she was currently in; having her stomach gnawing at her insides, desperately searching for even the slightest bit of nutriene. The feeling of hunger had subsided a few days after she had been chained, but she knew for a fact that she was still hungry despite the lack of warnings from her own body.

And even though she had tried to save as much energy as possible, her death still came faster than what she first believed. Reality was just that cruel.

"Only two more weeks..." she whispered to herself.

She can't even last two days.


	2. Chapter 2: Sanji's Policy

With silent and delicate steps, a man walks through a corridor, looking all smug. His scarred face gave way to a smirk instead of a smug smile; the beginning of an old cut began at his chin and came across his cheek through the lips and made it difficult for him to smile properly. Another scar could be seen across his eye, opposite to the other scar.

Dressed in an old worn suit, the man complimented the suit with old black shoes and a muddish green tie around his neck. His short messy black hair had signs of being brushed back, but the wind, which he had been out in just moments ago, had blown it out of place again. Despite his dirty looks, he walked proud with his chin held high and shoulders pushed back to make his chest look bigger. He was of regular built, so it was only his posture that gave away his position.

He was the captain of the ship and he had gone below deck to check up on their prisoner. It's been two weeks since he last saw her and so far he had uphold their deal. Since they were now halfway through the deal, he wanted to go down and check her condition. The guard have told him that she had made no trouble so far, so perhaps she had been serious about the whole deal. Shin, the captain, didn't think that woman would go through with such a deal as this, so he had complied. Mainly to see how long she would last or what she would do to get out of it again.

So far, she had behaved and haven't moved out of the spot in which she was placed on two weeks ago. How interesting.

"Ren~" he called out in a sing-song voice as soon as he saw her, the smug smile still in place. He stopped abruptly in front of the young woman, placing a hand over his heart while the other arm were pressed tightly to his side. With this posture, he bowed slightly for the woman, a miscievous glint in his light blue eyes. "It's a pleasure to see you once more. Tell me, how are you?"

Ren glanced up from her hung down position, brows slightly furrowing at his question. What an idiot.

The man chuckled, making the woman slump down again. "Right, I guess I won't be needing an answer for that. Truth be told, you look absolutely horrible! As if the cat have dragged you in here." He barked out laughing, clutching at his stomach.

The woman simply ignored him, hanging there silently. Had it not been for the rise and fall of her chest, one would think she was dead.

Shin stopped laughing shortly after, letting out a deep sigh to calm himself further. The smile still played at his lips as he leaned in closer to the young woman. "Ren, you know what? I didn't think you would hold our part of the deal, you know? You seemed like the kind of person who would trick a pirate like me just to get out of here alive. But you've been sitting here quietly and obediently, waiting things out."

She made no comment nor did she move out of place.

"I'm surprised, actually." The captain straightened up, glancing over to the guard that had woken up shortly after Shin had arrived. With a single gesture, the guard got up and nearly ran out of the room, leaving the two of them alone. Now with a seat available, Shin seated himself and looked at the woman with a look of interest.

"You don't look like you'll last long though. With this progress, you might die before time. And if that happens... well, I would have to do what a pirate does best."

Ren's head shot up, amber eyes widening in shock upon hearing his words. He wouldn't! Would he?

Shin merely grinned at her, quite amused by her reaction.

And his grin was all she needed to see. He would.

She gritted her teeth in anger, the furrowing of the brows deeping while she struggled against the chains holding her in place. "Don't you dare hurt any of the villagers! Or I'll kick your sorry ass!" she shouted with a sore voice, going into a coughing fit once she was done speaking. Against her will, she slumped back in place, suddenly feeling very tired.

The captain barked in laughter once more, leaning back in his seat and threw his feet on the desk. "I'm starting to think you'll actually die on me right at this moment! Well, guess I could stick around for a while. It's not like I got anything to do. _Yet_."

Shin laughed yet again, this time in a mocking manner while Ren did her best to not attempt to escape and kick the man's ass once she was free. Although she knew she would only die sooner if she attempted to move. So, against her will, she stayed in place, waiting things out.

**Back to the Straw Hats**

"Luffy! We've found a trace." Nami's voice could be heard shouting across the deck. The sun was just about nearing the horizon, indicating the night's arrival.

"Oh! So where is she?" Luffy's cheery voice said, the owner of the voice perched beside the mast, sitting with his legs crossed while he chewed on a snack.

"There's another ship ducked at the other end of the island. Pirates. We believe they may have been the ones causing trouble around here." Chopper answered for her, changing from his reindeer form into the tiny version.

"There's a high posibility that she'll be there." Nami continued, looking around at their crew. Or the remaining parts of it. "Say, has any of you seen Sanji-kun?"

Usopp shook his head. "No, he hasn't returned to the ship."

Zoro huffed in annoyance, crossing his arms. "Betcha he's chasing some stupid ladies."

"La_dy_." Nami corrected him, making the swordsman frown. "It is a woman we're looking for here." She let out a sigh, placing her hands on the hips. "As soon as Sanji-kun heard it was a woman we were searching for, he went off running on his own. Although I thought he may have returned here at some point. Seems not."

"So..." Usopp raised his hand, drawing the attention of everyone nearby. "Who are we looking for again?"

"Ren!" Luffy simply answered, eating the last bit of his snack which ended up with him pouting. He was still hungry.

"Uh..." The sniper gave him a look, slowly lowering his arm.

"A woman there's supposedly taking captive of some pirates, to protect the village. Right?" Nami explained, turning her gaze to the captain as she was starting to get unsure. She didn't get that many details from him after all.

"Right! And we're gonna find her!"

"So when are we going out to this ship?" Chopper stepped in, looking at them all with large, innocent brown eyes.

"Tonight! After dinner." Luffy fell down to the side, mouth wide open as he let his tongue hang out. "I'm so hungry... Sanji~ Where are you?"

The rest of the group either shook their heads or simply let out a sigh. Nami let her arms drop to the side and she turned around as she headed out. "Right, so first thing we gotta do is find Sanji-kun."

Zoro scoffed. "Love-sick moron..." he mumbled under his breath and followed the navigator. The red-head stopped up, turning once more to face the swordsman.

"Ah-ah. You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here on this ship, so we know where to find you." she said in a demanding tone, directing a pointing finger to the deck.

"Hah?" The swordsman scoffed once more, scowling in annoyance. "As if, sea-witch! The captain told us to go search for this woman, so that's what I-"

"Zoro! You'll only end up getting lost and it's more than enough to have to go search for Sanji-kun and this mysterious woman! No, you're staying right here." A stomp of her foot and a quiet huff.

"You don't have any authority to tell me that, sea-witch! Only the captain can do that!" Zoro was just about ready to draw his swords and slice this annoying woman into pieces. "And I don't get lost!"

"Zoro, Usopp! You stay on the ship until we've found Sanji." Luffy said determinedly, nodding once to himself.

Zoro groaned deeply, looking at the navigator with a glare whom had a victorious look on her face. With her chin held high, she throws her short hair over her shoulder while she turned which only made Zoro furm even more in anger.

Usopp took some steps away from the swordsman, not the least happy to be alone with such an angered and strong person. "Eh, L-Luffy! C-Can't C-C-Chopper take my switch?! I-I-I need some things i-i-in the village! Yes, s-s-some very important th-things." With his legs shaking, he crossed his arms and attempted to smile as if nothing was amiss. It was true though; he needed some things for his small experiments.

"Alright. Chopper, you stay on the ship."

"Understood!" the reindeer said with a salute.

The sniper let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and quickly abandoned the ship. The rest of the remaining crew were already standing and waited for him. Once the small group was collected, they all set off to search for their missing cook.

**Meanwhile with Sanji... somewhere on the island**

"WHERE ARE YOU, MY BEAUTIFUL DAMSELL IN DISTRESS~" Sanji's voice could be heard although the sound was mulled some by the thick forest surrounding him. At first he's been running around in town, asking questions, but no one knew where the so-called damsel in distress were. So he started searching by himself. He figured they might be hiding somewhere in the forest since none of the villagers knew where they were and it _was_ a pretty small island. Although the trees were quite big considering the size of the island. Well, it is Grand Line.

"Where are you~" he said in a sing-song voice, running through the forest as fast as he could. However he had to make many turns and jump over roots, so his speed were limited. "Oi, if any of you scrampy bastards has hurt her, I'll kill you all!" he said, speaking to some imaginary figures by now.

Taking a turn around a tree, he stopped up promptly, seeing the shore right at his feet. He knew this must have been the other side of the island from where they were ducked since there were no ships here. Only the vast sea as far as the eye reached.

Turning to his left, Sanji took an immediate sprint, keeping an eye out for anything that resembled 'suspiciousness'. So far, only the sea to his right and the forest to his left was what met his eye. Nothing suspicious.

That was until he saw a ship ducked far up ahead. Even from this distance, he could tell that this ship was accompained by a large crew, given its size, and that it was a pirate ship. Clearly not the Going Merry as this ship was easily twice as big and was colored blood red with black edges and black sails. The sails were hurled up, so he couldn't see what mark it had much less state which pirate group this was. It didn't matter, all he knew was that this reeked of 'suspiciousness'.

His visible blue eye sterring harder as determination set in in his features, Sanji ran faster than ever before and made it to the ship in record time. He stood for a few moments simply looking at the ship, trying to determine the strength of this crew and where he would need to look to find his 'damsel in distress'.

_It doesn't matter how many they are or how strong. I'll just kick all their asses and rescue that woman! _he thought to himself, steeling his determination even further before straightening up and taking in a deep breath while clenching his hands into fists which he raised to his sides.

"WHOEVER YOU BASTARDS ARE," Sanji yelled at the top of his lungs, seeing a few men of the crew appear before he continued. "I'LL KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES AND MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!" Which he knew little of or practically nothing. All he knew was that they had taken a lady as hostage and thus they needed to pay.

With that declaration set in place, Sanji quickly made his way onboard the ship and started fighting even before his foot had set place on deck. Shoving his hands into the pockets, he kicked and dodged his way through the growing crowd, smacking some men together into a pile while others appeared from below deck. It almost felt like every time he took out one, two new people came and took their place.

These people weren't particularly strong, but there were many of them. And some of those he had already knocked down woke up and continued to fight. This was tiring him faster than he would have liked and he hadn't even started searching on the ship yet. How was he supposed to find that woman if he was stuck here? Perhaps he should have gone back first and taken the rest of the crew with him, then they could hold these guys up while he searched for the woman.

Damn him and his impatience and irrational thinking.

To at least get a bit of a breather, Sanji went up higher and watched as the crew climbed their way up to him, slowlier than he had moved. Perched at the mast, the cook found it much easier to fight the men from up there since he could just kick the people down that came up and they even took some with them on the downfall. How fortunate. But that still didn't solve the problem as to how he was supposed to go look for the woman. He couldn't stay up here the whole day.

"What do you want from us?!" one of the pirates shouted, standing out from the rest that just threw treaths and insults at him. He had just plain out ignored them the whole time, but that one really caught his attention.

The pirates stilled their movements, obviously expecting an answer from Sanji. And an answer would they get. Pulling out his cigarrete package, the cook took out one of his calming nicotin-filled inhalers and put one into his mouth. Packing away the package, he pulled out his lighter next and light up the cigarrete.

He inhaled. "You shitty bastards dared to lay a hand on a lady." he said while smoke slowly exited his lungs and into the air, creating a fog-like cloud in front of his darkened face. "I came here to kick your asses and to bring that lady back to safety." he said seriously, narrowing his visible eye at a group standing in the middle of the deck, making them flinch under his glare.

"Hurting a lady," he exclaimed next while jumping down, pulling one leg up while the other was completely straightened out and ready to kick upon impact. "Is unforgivable!"

_Somehow_ he had managed to make his way through the crew after that and went below deck, frantically searching for the woman, whom he realized he didn't know the name of. He had been in such a hurry that he hadn't gotten the name of her from Luffy.

With a few locked doors blocking out the enemy, Sanji started looking wherever he could. If he was lucky, the woman would be around here somewhere. Hopefully. He would have hated it if she had been placed somewhere else on the ship and he had to fight his way through that crew - _again_.

The cook went through all the rooms there were in the hallway he was currently in, save for the last at the very end of the hallway. He stopped in front of it, thinking, _wishing_ for the woman to be there. With the last intake of his smoke, he threw the cigarrete away carelessly before exhaling. Once he had calmed his nerves fully, he pried open the door and made his way inside.

What met his sight was a thousand times worse than he could have imagined.

There, hunched over the air like some ragdoll, was a young woman. Or what he hoped was a young woman. Her very thin frame made it hard for him to determine her age as well as the messy hair and dirtied clothes that obviously hadn't been washed for a long time.

She was too thin to ever be considered healthy and appeared to not be breathing at the moment.

Wait - she wasn't breathing?!

He quickly walked up to her, nudging away the lone furniture there were in the room and searched for a pulse on the woman's neck. He wasn't a doctor, so he wasn't sure if he did it right so instead he tried to see if she was actually breathing by holding out his hand in front of her mouth and nose. He waited for a painfully long time before he felt the slightest brush of air against his skin. She was alive! If only barely.

"There was a kitchen..." he muttered to himself, glancing towards the exit. He could do it! There was still time to save her! Getting up, he kicked at the chains holding the woman in place, making sure to not injure her and kept his kicks as far away from her as possible. Once he was done, he carefully scooped the woman up to his arms and ran his way to the kitchen which he had passed in his search.

He thanked the Gods that he had been able to find her _and_ that there was a kitchen nearby. Now he could only pray that he was on time.


End file.
